This committee of cardinals was established in 1622 by Pope Gregory XV to supervise foreign missions. The word originated (some would say unsurprisingly so) as shorthand referring to the Roman Catholic Church’s Congregatio de Propaganda Fide or the “congregation for propagating the faith”. Even then it was not a pejorative in use like it is today. “Propaganda” didn’t come into common use as a political science term until World War I. note: Not relevant, but interesting.)Ģ: the spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a personģ: ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one’s cause or to damage an opposing cause also : a public action having such an effectīut that’s not exactly what people feel when they hear the word, is it? Why do most people have a negative reaction to the word “propaganda”? After all, by definition, “propaganda” is much like the verb “to persuade” in meaning.ġ: to move by argument, entreaty, or expostulation to a belief, position, or course of actionĮtymologically speaking, the word “propaganda” is fairly new as a political science term. What is propaganda? Webster’s defines the word as follows:ġ capitalized : a congregation of the Roman curia having jurisdiction over missionary territories and related institutions (ed. Since words are the basic building block of the English language, we’ll start with asking what is propaganda, look at some general history of the practice, consider the importance of meaning of words, the ideas of connotation and denotation, and the process of selecting “value loaded” words. Now more than ever, it is important to know the basics of how propaganda works. Now that the kid gloves have come off regarding the governmental efforts to control your mind by controlling both your information and how you receive it, let’s discuss the nature of propaganda. So instead of repeating the points she makes which illustrate why understanding propaganda is important, I will refer you to her post “ How about Some Government Propaganda for the People Paid for by the People Being Propagandized?” Originally, I drafted this article with a preface about the story Michael Hastings recently broke on BuzzFeed about an amendment to the latest defense authorization bill that would “legalize the use of propaganda on American audiences.” However, as I worked on it this morning, our very own poet laureate and research librarian extraordinaire Elaine Magliaro cut me off at the pass with her own excellent article on the subject.
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